Peregrine offers industry’s broadest integrated RF tuning IC portfolio

Peregrine Semiconductor Corp., a fabless provider of high-performance radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), released four new DuNE™ Digitally Tunable Capacitors (DTCs), creating the industry’s broadest integrated RF tuning IC portfolio. The PE64906, PE64907, PE64908, and PE64909 DTCs feature a wide capacitance range of 0.6 – 7.7 pF and support power handling up to 34 dBm into 50 Ohms (30 Vpk RF). The monolithic DTCs include integrated bias generation, RF filtering and bypassing, control interface, and ESD protection of 2 kV HBM, all incorporated into a 2 mm x 2 mm package. The devices provide an easy-to-use solution for antenna tuning and impedance matching applications, as well as tunable filters and phase shifters in the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), military radio, Test-and-Measurement (T&M), Machine-to-Machine (M2M), and wireless infrastructure markets.

“The growing complexity of wireless systems continues to drive the need for high-performance tunable products,” said Mark Schrepferman, director of the communications and industrial product line for Peregrine’s High-Performance Solutions business unit. “Since the launch of our first DTCs in 2010, Peregrine has supported this need by providing state-of-the-art ICs that improve RF performance. This latest expansion of our DTC product portfolio allows us to support a greater number of architectures for impedance matching, tunable filters, and phase shifter applications in a variety of markets.” 

The PE64906/7/8/9 DTCs support a frequency range of 100 – 3,000 MHz and provide high tuning accuracy, linear step size, and temperature stability. HaRP™ technology enhancements enable high linearity of IIP3 of >+65 dBm at 50 Ohms, with exceptional harmonic performance of 2fo/3fo = -40/-40 dBm @ 34 dBm RF (900 MHz), and 32 dBm RF (1900 MHz). The devices feature direct battery voltage operation, with consistent performance enabled by on-chip voltage regulation. Low supply and standby currents of 140 and 24 microamperes (VDD = 2.75V), respectively, help to extend battery life in portable devices. The PE64906/7/8/9 devices are controlled through the widely-supported 3-wire (SPI-compatible) interface, making it easy to incorporate them into designs.